I should venture so far as to lay down for an approximate rule, that the House of Lords ought, on a first-class subject, to be slow--very slow--in rejecting a Bill passed even once by a large majority of the House of Commons.
Bagehot discusses the cautious approach the House of Lords should take regarding legislation passed by the House of Commons.
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If those persons be people of different temperaments, different ideas, and different educations, you have an almost infallible security that nothing, or almost nothing, will be done with excessive rapidity.
The United States could not have become monarchical, even if the Constitutional Convention had decreed it, even if the component States had ratified it.
The whole history of civilisation, is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.
It is absurd to choose by contested party election an impartial chooser of Ministers.
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